Wal-Mart To Sell iPhone 3G

After a furor of speculation this weekend that Wal-Mart [WMT] might be the next retailer to carry Apple's [AAPL] iPhone 3G, a few details have finally emerged. According to Bloomberg, the world's largest retailer will begin stocking Apple's 8GB model at the end of December, and selling it for $197 with a two-year AT&T [T] contract. Apple and AT&T sell the device for $2 more at their own outlets.

It's likely that Wal-Mart will also eventually carry the 16GB version of the device, which Apple and AT&T price at $299.

This will come as a disappointment to anyone following the rumors from the end of last week that Wal-Mart would be exhuming the 4GB model — now discontinued by Apple — and selling it for $99 with contract. That didn't make much sense, as iPhones are selling briskly even without any bargain-basement incentives. Then again, Wal-Mart is really, really cheap.

Some analysts are still holding on to the $99 iPhone concept, citing it as an inevitable build-out of the company's mobile product line. But according to Apple, adoption is not a problem; Steve Jobs told analysts in October that the company had sold 10 million iPhones to date, amounting to 1% of the world-wide mobile phone market. Best Buy [BBY] is the only other big-box retailer to sell the iPhone.